SAN ANTONIO – A man was arrested after allegedly killing his grandmother Wednesday inside her Shavano Park home, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
The grandson, identified as Joseph Martin Finnegan, 27, has officially been charged with murder, Bexar County jail records show.
The woman, whom Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he believes is in her 70s or 80s, called BCSO to request help for Finnegan, who was experiencing a mental health episode.
The woman made the call just before 5 p.m. Wednesday.
According to Shavano Park city officials, the woman specifically requested for BCSO’s SMART (Specialized Multidisciplinary Alternate Response Team) unit to come to the home on Long Bow Road for “mental help for her grandson that was not mentally doing well.”
The woman also called for BCSO’s SMART unit because a “marked Shavano Park police unit” would have drawn unwanted “attention to the situation,” the city said in a Thursday morning statement. The unit dispatched to the home consisted of one Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy and “two civilian mental health professionals,” according to Shavano Park city officials.
The sheriff said the woman was in contact with a deputy, but the victim never responded by the time BCSO arrived at her home approximately 30 minutes later on Long Bow Road.
Salazar said no one answered the BCSO deputy’s first knock at the door. However, Shavano Park city officials said the deputy looked through a window and saw Finnegan covered in blood and “immediately engaged with the male subject at gunpoint.”
A Shavano Park Police Department officer later responded to the home.
“(The deputy) could see the victim lying on the floor covered in blood inside the residence,” Salazar said.
The woman was pronounced dead on the scene with heavy amounts of trauma to her neck and face, according to the sheriff. As of Thursday morning, the woman has yet to be identified.
Salazar said a “pointy, edged weapon” and a “heavy blunt object” were recovered by deputies at the scene.
According to Salazar, this is not the first time that Finnegan has found himself behind bars.
“The city police here (Shavano Park) know him. They’ve dealt with him many times,” Salazar said. “He’s got a long criminal history, and a long mental health history, as well.”
Finnegan had multiple reports of violence against the Shavano Park Police Department, “but, fortunately, nothing to this extent,” Salazar said.
Finnegan was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a $250,000 bond, court records show. He is expected back in court on Aug. 25.